Tremendous efforts have been made to overcome anode material problems by decreasing the particle size, using silicon-based thin films, silicon-nanotubes, porous silicon and silicon-metal alloys, dispersing silicon into an inactive/active matrix, and coating with carbon as well as using different electrolyte systems and binder systems. In these approaches a variety of composites of active and inactive materials have been widely exploited in which the inactive component plays a structural buffering role to minimize the mechanical stress induced by huge volume change of active silicon, thus preventing the deterioration of the electrode integrity.
One reference electrode cannot maintain its sensing potential, e.g., the potential will drift over time which may cause battery operation to spiral out of control. However, all batteries need to be operated as long as possible. It can be several hundred thousand cycles for grid energy storage and transportation. In addition, metallic lithium-related reference electrodes cannot be applied in a dry room battery manufacturing condition.